From the East and West
by grudgingly accepts reality
Summary: In a world of immortals there are bound to be secrets, hidden chasms of unfathomed danger or possibility. Percy Jackson has fallen into one and finds himself tangeled in the bonds of a new race of gods, the Egyptian branch. Old and new enemies will rise and will Percy learn to accept it? Or will he lose himself in the darkness?


~X~

The weight of knowing the fate of others is a heavy one as Apolo discovered soon after he had up taken the role of deliverer of prophecy and the one to name the vessel that would deliver his inhuman insights to the mortal realm. However this certain insight he had just gained would not be released to the mortal realm, rather he offered it up to the council the see what they would do about the rather dire decision. All that was left to do after that is manipulate the realm of the mortals to stop the looming destruction of all known peace and prosperity.

\- _exitium_ -

The shrill scream pierced the dry desert air as the hag of demon-like looks was sheared in half by a gleaming bronze blade. The two halves of the monstrosity crumbled silently into a dull golden dust that settled on the cracked ground as the monster's essence traveled back to the eternal pit. The moon glared down on the figure holding the gleaming bronze blade as it sighed in satisfaction. Another monstrous entity purged of the world. Perseus Jackson looked to the horizon as the slumbering sun rose lazily from its hiding place beneath the horizon, painting the sky a beautiful array of colors. And with the rising of the sun came the rise of the heat, in fact Percy could already see the air simmering. With the rising of the sun also marked the end of the "hot bed" time period, as Percy called it, for monster purging. Just as Percy was about to turn away and begin the long annoying process of either hitchhiking or walking the way to the nearest village in the dry deserts of Egypt, the home of the Great Pyramids.

After walking for about an hour he spotted something strange, the outline of two figures, black as night in contrast to the sun's orange appearance on the horizon.

Percy squinted at the figures trying to figure out if they were mortal, demigod, or monster. One was larger than the other and it seemed that the other was riding some sort of mount that traveled close to the ground. As they slowly drew closer he could start to puzzle out their attributes. As the wind picked up he could begin to hear their voices. Judging from the fact that they both spoke English with a very American accent, they were not locals. However, two very bold details made Percy reach for his blade. One carried a strange curved blade that seemed golden and the other rode a legitimate Nile crocodile, maybe double the size of a normal one, the rider being female of mixed descent and the other a tall, leanly muscled male of white descent. They had definitely spotted him in a slight crouch, his blade drawn and sporting an ever so slightly feral look and had taken to being on the offense against possibly dangerous demigods. The male gave a cry and charged, his company unlatching a staff of sorts and murmuring a few words before tossing it into the air, hitting the ground as a smaller crocodile than the one she was riding, though not by that much. Percy quickly analyzed the situation. The crocodile could easily be dispatched but the guy would be a problem. His sword was obviously more heavy and he was quite muscled, despite what he had thought at first from quite a distance, and judging from the pace at which he was approaching Percy, was quite quick. However he was right-handed which gave his ambidextrous sword fighting style an advantage along with the fact that his opponent only had one blade. And so he reached his hand into the air and brought his hand down with a silver blade in his left hand.

The sword was a gift from Poseidon, his father, on his 19th birthday, and was composed of silver malice, a metal discovered by his father deep in the depths of the oceans, it's origins circulating around the telekhines, and the wrath of the sea. The blade itself was different from riptide, first of all, it was forged under different styles of different time periods, a cross between a xiphos and a rapier. Shorter than a typical rapier, yet longer than a typical xiphos with the wider and flatter blade of that of an xiphos and the more guarded handle of a rapier. Percy settled into the stance of a veteran of one on one sword combat and prepared himself for a particularly ferocious clash judging from the fact that the crocodile looked hungry.

Looking for a being of incredible power that could cause almost two thirds of the mortal population to be slaughtered by denizens of the Egyptian equivalent of Hell was boring. And the downright boiling heat wasn't exactly helping. The only thing that was making the trip bearable for Valentina was the fact that she was traveling with Jude, an endearing boy with the looks of an angel, at least, that's what she thought of him, though she would never admit it. She had to admit, she was a strange person. When she had first arrived at the 21st nome, a branch of the House Of Life, a group of magicians dedicated to carrying on the traditions of Egypt on and quelling the outbreaks of Egyptian magic she stood out. From her short black hair that didn't even touch her shoulders to her confident and loud personality, probably a reason she didn't have a boyfriend, and the fact that she out right chose the path of Sobek, a path no one had ever chosen in the recent history of the Brooklyn house. But to her, it was the best and most obvious choice for her, after all, she came from a family of crocodile wranglers, people who, essentially, wrestled with crocodiles, showing off all of their terrible attributes that could rip a human to bloody shreds. She also knew Sobek only respected the strong, and if she could wrestle a full grown crocodile with nothing but her bare hands she knew he would respect her and lend her his power. So most people stayed out of her way, only the stupidest of the boys trying, and failing, to gain her affections. All except Jude. When she was around him she lost everything she prided herself in being, her confident, I bow down to nobody attitude, not to mention her usual silver tongue turned to one with a century's worth of rust and twisted into a knot.

So to say the least she was less than smooth around Jude, however today seemed to be going reasonably well. She was able to talk like a normal person as she rode along on her trusty crocodile friend, crack a few sarcastic remarks that made Jude laugh, sending her heart into a frenzied drum routine. However the conversation slowly came to a stop over time as something powerful touched there outstretched senses that were deeply emerged in the Duat, a layered realm of extraordinary magic that coexisted with the mortal realm. She had always had a knack for submerging herself in the Duat and puzzling out her enemies and what type of a magician they were, or if they were demon or rogue god, what they could do, however when she set her sights in the Duat she saw something that greatly surprised her. She saw the vaguest outline of a person, outlined in an ultraviolet light with tentacles of frozen material stretching out from him, taking the vaguest shape of a pair of large wings, wherever he went the Duat simmered, like the simmering of the air on an extremely hot day. One thing she knew for certain is that was not friendly.

"There's something or someone coming, and they are NOT friendly." She told Jude. He nodded and readied his sword, a _khopesh_ , a sword of the typical Egyptian warrior, a protector of the pharaoh, however there was actually no Pharoah at the time, but that was of no object. Valentina also had a similar weapon that she stored within the Duat, but reserved it normally after her magic reserves were severely depleted, but she had to be careful, if a magician went to far or lost control when casting magic, they could quite literally burn up.

"Val," Jude looked to her, "you might want to get your staff, this guy gives off some serious aura and he has a sword." She looked at him in confusion, her brow scrunching up.

"What do mean by aura?" She asked.

Jude seemed to try and find a way to explain, scrunching up his brow and rubbing the back of his neck in concentration.

He was cute when he concentrated.

She mentally slapped herself for thinking that. She was determined not to show her affections for Jude no matter what, well, unless he confessed first…

"Val? Earth to Val!" He waved his hand in front of her face. She snapped out of her thoughts, trying not to let the heat rapidly running up her neck reach her cheeks.

"Sorry. What?" She hurriedly said.

Jude sighed.

"What I was _trying_ to explain, is that I can sorta feel people and what kind of vibe they give off, in the metaphorical sense of course." He said slowly, as if explaining to an impatient child, which she kinda was.

She raised an eyebrow but said no more. She turned her attention to the problem on hand, the man, as she had just classified, had become visible and was within a distance at which she could analyze him, he look nineteen, maybe even eighteen, with distinctive sea green eyes long unkempt black hair that made it seem like only he could pull off the "I just rolled out of bed looking this good" look. The only thing that ruined the image was his face, it was twisted into something somewhat feral, a cross between an outright livid human and a cornered animal. He bore long cuts down his arms and his shirt was torn to shreds. What really chilled Valentina to the bone was the long scar down his face, like a jagged canyon down an otherwise smooth plain, reaching from the top left of his forehead to about his nose, being interrupted by his left eye.

Jude obviously needed no reason to "try and subdue an otherwise uncooperative offender" which is another way of saying try to beat the shit out of him and then drag him back to the twenty-first nome to investigate him. Being the nice person she was she decided to support Jude, so she reached into the Duat, which felt uncannily like sticking her hand through layers of cold Jell-O, quite a magical substance according to Kufu her baboon friend, and pulled out a staff topped with the head of a crocodile as tall as she was. (Why she was friends with a baboon is a long story) She murmured to her staff a quick good luck, an odd habit but people knew better than to judge a girl with a temper and a sharp object as well as a wide variety of crocodiles on her side, and threw it up, the staff transforming into a fifteen foot long crocodile that landed on all fours and broke into what the crocodile equivalent of a run is.

She turned her attention to the guy. He didn't exactly look like a magician, any magician with sense would had summoned maybe a staff or a wand, even if they were an experienced combat magician, against two other magicians. The guy analyzed the situation with a critical eye, taking in the charging crocodile and Jude sprinting towards him with a _kopesh._ His body seemed more alert at the promise of battle and anxiously raised his hand into the air. Moments later a gleaming silver blade with two sea green veins running down the double edges, meeting at the tip, the blade longer than the one that had been his only blade moments earlier. He settled into a stance, his silver blade in his left hand poised in the front and his bronze blade in his right hand poised at about navel height and at his side. Valentina at the moment that his blade of silver appeared in his hand that he had to be a magician, taking the situation even more serious than before, she just hoped Jude was

Jude had fought monsters, people, magicians, and crazed baboons. But nothing could compare to the fight he was currently locked in. The guy with green eyes used his swords as if they were made of pure energy that could dissolve anything rather than steel, each blow with the intent to kill backed up by what felt like a tonne of force. Jude prided himself in being the best combat magician in all of Brooklyn House, disarming even the second best combat magician, Zach Green, of their weapon within the first blows of the sparring match. However the man he was fighting made him seem slow and clumsy and welding a hundred pound bar of deformed metal. This man was born to be a soldier. The one-sided fight was quickly deteriorating and if Jude didn't do anything soon he'd be cut down. Jude decided to use his trump card. For Jude, using magic was like riding a bike, with one wheel, and thousands of hands were trying to make him fall, if he didn't speak the word or words correctly he'd either be, a. Flustered and embarrassed, b. Injured, c. Dead. So Jude normally refrained from casting any spell of sorts and reserved them for life and death situations, and the situation he was stuck in at the moment was right up there. Jude hastily went through a mental list of spells and picked one, however, first he needed to put some distance between him and his opponent. At a break in the action Jude raggedly shouted, _Drowah_ , the Egyptian word for boundary. A series of golden hieroglyphics blazed to life representing the word and was replaced by a wall of golden energy. The man stepped back in shock, his face going slack, Jude feeling a sliver of satisfaction wriggling through the churning masses of fear and adrenaline at surprising his opponent. The crocodile Valentina had summoned took the opportunity of calm and let through the wall of energy, something Jude and Valentina had come up with to catch enemies of guard, with his maw open, poised for the kill. The man shrugged off his shock and plunged his bronze sword directly down the croc's throat, the croc dissolving into a wooden staff cleaning cleaved in half.

Valentina wailed at seeing her companion killed so effortlessly.

"That was my favorite staff!" She cried.

Jude was so shocked that wall of energy simmered away, giving the man an easy kill. He lunged swords outstretched, he swords seemingly yearning to be plunged into warm flesh. Jude shook off his shock and hastily selected his spell and, stumbling over the words ever so slightly, he shouted, " _khefa_!" The Egyptian word for fist. The hieroglyphic blazed in the air and as soon as it disappeared a giant holographic 3D fist shimmered into existence and rocketed towards the charging man. Two things happened then, maybe twenty feet away a geyser of sand shot up, almost thirty feet high, and the man pointed his silver sword at Jude's throat, just above his Adam's apple.

"Now," He growled, "You and your friend are-" His sentence was interrupted by an ivory wand smacking into his temple, knocking him out cold. Before he even hit the ground, both his swords disappeared, accompanied by a single _pop._ Jude sighed, relieved that it was all over. He was caked in sweat, his clothes sticking to his body with a few minor cuts on his torso leaking blood, staining his shirt, but despite all that, he looked back at Valentina and grinned,

"All in a day's work, eh?" He said breathlessly.

She grinned back.

"Hell ya."

~X~


End file.
